Not Sick
by pdljmpr6
Summary: A response to something Gibbs said in SWAK that I found interesting. Abby rolled her eyes, "you're the most sick looking 'not sick' person I've ever seen." Gibbs/Abby/Tony friendship
1. Never Say Never

**A/N:** Really? _Never _had a cold? _Never _had the flu? _Really? _Well then it's about time, don't you think?_  
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**Disclaimer: **Not mine, just love to take them out for a spin every now and then._  
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"This is a bad idea, Abbs," Tony muttered, dragging his feet and shifting the brown paper bag she had made him carry from one arm to the other.

Abby sent him a glare over her shoulder, "no Tony, what's a bad idea is you continuing to complain," she stopped suddenly and turned to shove her spiked bracelet in his face, "not for show, remember?"

Tony gave her a wary look, his eyes bouncing between her face and the supposed 'weapon disguised as jewelry' a few times before grunting, "yeah Abbs. I remember."

She dropped her hand back to her side, "good," and spun back around to continue up the small walkway.

She didn't even pause on the porch, merely reached for the doorknob and let herself and Tony in as if she owned the place.

Abby led the way further inside and pointed at the kitchen counter, "set everything up."

Dutifully, Tony went to the counter and began carefully emptying the bag while Abby made her way across the room to the basement door, which was ajar as usual though the sound of scraping sandpaper was curiously absent.

Abby stood at the top of the stairs for a few minutes, watching Gibbs from above. For the most part he seemed okay and she almost second guessed herself in coming. Almost. It wasn't as if she'd overreacted...much.

Just because when she'd run into Ducky earlier and he'd told her that Gibbs had seemed paler than usual and had gone home because he "had nothing better to do here" and had proceeded to pass off all her running tests to a barely competent (in her opinion) lab tech and collected Tony and hauled him out of headquarters with her to clean out the nearest pharmacy of all medical supplies available aand then sped straight over to Gibbs house…that wasn't necessarily overreacting. Right?

But as she watched she realized Gibbs wasn't just his usual self sanding away on his boat like always. She tilted her head to one side, watching closer.

He kept stopping and allowing his head to drop a little, as if suddenly too heavy for his neck to support. He leaned against the bench for several moments longer than was needed when he went to retrieve a mug of coffee and she noticed that his hand trembled slightly when he raised it to take a sip. She quietly descended the stairs, not exactly taking pains to be silent but not stomping either, and as she came closer could see a thing sheen of sweat on his skin. But what was more troubling was that he hadn't seemed to notice her yet.

Gibbs set down the coffee, now turned cold and, while he wanted a refill, he didn't really want to contemplate climbing the stairs in that moment, and turned to go back to his boat. He just barely caught sight of a figure in his peripheral vision and froze, his muscles all tensing at once. It turned out to be a rather painful reflex.

He caught a whiff of the specially brewed perfume that smelt of gunpowder and realized who it was that had infiltrated his domain, both to his relief and chagrin.

"Abby," he said. He didn't have to look at her to know she wore a deep scowl with her hands on her hips, ready to read him the riot act, which was usually amusing but right now he was just too damn tired to deal with.

"Gibbs," she responded tersely then, without warning, reached forward and pressed her cool fingers to his forehead. To her credit, she didn't wince, but did pull away quickly. "You're burning up," she told him, managing to keep her scolding front against the concern welling inside her, "you need to be upstairs in bed."

Gibbs didn't look at her. He picked up the sandpaper and returned to his boat, "nope. not sick, Abby."

She rolled her eyes, "you the most sick looking 'not sick' person I've ever seen."

Gibbs didn't respond and Abby huffed, "Gibbs-" she said, warning him.

When he still showed no signs of listening to her she sighed dramatically, "fine. You leave me no choice."

With that she stepped forward and, taking her life in her hands, not that she saw it that way, reached out and plucked the sandpaper from him. Studiously avoiding his deadly gaze, she replaced it on the bench and then returned to him, taking his hand to pull him toward the stairs.

Gibbs didn't move. She tugged a few times but he remained firmly rooted to the spot.

"Gibbs," she said, girding her loins for a fight. She turned to face him, crossing her arms over her chest, "you have a fever. You're pale. I'm willing to bet coffee is all you've had to "eat" in over a day because you can't keep anything else down. You're shaky, clammy, sweaty, and you left work early, which you never do which means you feel worse than you want to admit and, I'm sure I don't need to remind you since they obviously covered this when you got your PhD infectious diseases, but just because you ignore it, does not make it go away." She titled her head to one side and raised her eyebrows. An unspoken challenge in her eyes.

Gibbs narrowed his eyes. Very few people on earth dared speak to him that way, and even fewer lived to tell about it.

Fortunately for her, Abby was one of those people.

Giving up, much easier than Abby had expected and thus furthering her worry, Gibbs slumped his shoulders slightly brushed past her toward the stairs.

In the kitchen Gibbs scowled to see that Abby had brought reinforcements.

"Hiya, Boss," Tony grinned at him from the stove, where he was cooking what smelled like chicken soup. He was smart enough not to say so, but his Boss looked like crap. Pale skin, bags under his eyes and he was even swaying a little on his feet. He silently thanked Abby's stubborness for dragging him over there. Gibbs had a tendency to watch everyone's six but his own.

"DiNozzo-" Gibbs' tone held all the warning his words did not and Tony nodded.

"I know I know, not supposed to touch your stuff but," he turned to the counter where he had cough syrup, aspirin, sore throat drops, antihistamines, aspirin, menthol gel and a thermometer spread out before him, "I was forced to ask myself who I feared more, you or Abby," he shrugged, plastering on another of his cheeky smiles, "at the moment Boss, you're not at 100%, so Abby won."

"Damn right I did," Abby entered the kitchen a few paces behind Gibbs and proceeded to usher him through the room toward the stairs, "go upstairs, get in bed. I'll be there in a minute with medicine and some real food. I'm afraid you're off the caffeine for a while, Gibbs."

Abby heard a muttered curse and more indistinguishable grumbling as Gibbs made his way up the stairs and shook her head, returning to the kitchen.

"What'd he say?" Tony asked, ladling the hot soup into a bowl and reaching for a glass for water so Gibbs could wash down the pills Abby was setting aside.

She shrugged nonchalantly, "that we're fired."

Tony turned to stare at her, forgetting the bowl was hot and nearly burning himself.

"What? What do you mean _fired_?"

Abby gave him a thoughtful look, "Don't worry, it's for a good cause. We have to help Gibbs get better as soon as humanly possible," she explained patiently, loading a tray with the food and medicine, "he's our leader, Tony. Without Gibbs we're just…another team. We're like a bear without it's claws, a lion without it's teeth, we're…" she paused, her eyes widened and she dropped her voice conspiratorially, "we're Jedi, without the Force," she raised her eyebrows and dipped her chin, emphasizing her point. And then she collected the tray and headed for the stairs leaving Tony to stare after her, unsure if there was really any response he could give to that.

He winced at the threats Abby shouted, as she ascended the stairs, if she did not find Gibbs in bed when she got up there.

He dropped his head into his hands, "I just hope he's too out of it to remember any of this when he comes back to work on Monday."

"Think you'll be that lucky, DiNozzo?" a voice called out from above.

Tony looked up at the ceiling in wide-eyed horror.

_How does he do that?_

"Of course not," Tony answered the rehtorical query in a quiet mutter and dropped his head back into his hands, "the gods aren't that kind," and then added, "at least Abby won't be mad at me."

Then, as if on cue, Abby's voice sounded from upstairs.

"_DiNozzo_, get up here."

He groaned and jogged toward the stairs.

It was going to be a long weekend.

END


	2. No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

**A/N:** Well I was pretty much overwhelmed with the response to the "first" chapter of this fic, (thank you SOOOO much, by the way) and was convinced to write a second chapter. Many were hoping for more of sick Gibbs, but the Muse was not feeling me on that idea. Instead, she came up with this, not even _she _can resist Gibbs in 'father' mode :) Enjoy. -pj_  
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Gibbs took the address Abby provided, which was the break in the case they'd been working toward all week, and handed it to McGee, who was standing on the other side of the work table, trying to keep his distance from his two pale-faced, red-nosed and shaky colleagues.

Tony sneezed and Ziva cringed, handing him a cloth handkercheif she pulled from her pocket.

"Tanks Ziba," he muttered and blew his nose loudly, causing everyone to wince. When he tried to hand it back Ziva jumped away as if afraid of being burned.

"Keep it," she said, taking another step back, "I insist."

Tony shrugged and shoved the newly acquired hanky in his pocket. Gibbs sent McGee and Ziva off to check out the address, which the two were more than happy to do if it got them out of 'germ transfer range', and turned back to the two remaining members of his team.

Abby sat on a stool bent over the keyboard in front of her computer, her head laying heavily on her folded arms. Tony was leaning his forehead against the cool refrigerator door on the other side of the room with the heals of his hands pressed against his eyes.

"You two should be home in bed," Gibbs echoed Abby's words to him last week.

"I'd love to, Boss," Tony said, his retort only half a second slower than it would have been usually, "but Abby keeps turning me down."

Unable to muster the energy required to look up and scowl, Abby was satisfied to hear a telling hand-to-head_ smack_ followed by a clearly startled _ow!_

"How can you hit a sick man, Boss?"

"You wouldn't be sick if you'd just do what you're told, DiNozzo."

"But Boss, Abby started the whole thing!" Tony was whining outright, his aching muscles and pounding headache having rid him of all motivation not to do so.

"I did not!" Abby's voice came out low and hardly audible, a sure sign her sore throat was still in full force.

"Did too," Tony shot back.

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did-"

"Don't make me smack you again, DiNozzo," Gibbs stepped between the two and glared. Tony backed down immediately, unwilling to even make decent go at standing up to Gibbs in his weakened state.

"Sorry Boss," he mumbled, and slumped back against the refrigerator again, allowing his eyes to drift closed as the soothing coolness of it penetrated his shirt.

A few moments later the sensation of a hand on his forehead caused his eyes to snap back open again and found Gibbs frowning at him.

"What?"

Gibbs merely turned and went to Abby, who was back to being half asleep on her computer keyboard. He reached out to touch her exposed neck and hissed involuntarily, she was even warmer than Tony.

Abby turned her head and blinked up at him, eyes glazed and red to match her nose.

He sighed heavily. They both really did need to be home asleep, but he didn't trust either to drive at the moment. McGee and Ziva were out picking up that suspect and Gibbs was going to have to get a confession out of him when they got back. He thought briefly of Ducky, before remembering he was in England at his Alma Mater getting a lifetime achievement award.

He looked back at Abby and Tony, Abby's eyes having drifted shut again and Tony sighing contentedly at the coolness of the refrigerator.

He'd just have to find somewhere to keep them until he could drive them back to his place later. Not that he was overly eager to have them spend the weekend with him again, but leaving them to fend for themselves for two days in their current condition was even further down on the list of things he wanted to do, so he figured it was really the only option.

He turned and headed deeper into the lab, toward Abby's office, "alright, c'mon you two."

Abby lifted her head slowly and then slid off her chair, dutifully following Gibbs into the next room. Tony pulled himself off the refrigerator as she passed, what little energy either had had been burned off during the previous childlike disagreement.

"Lay down," Gibbs pointed to Abby and then the futon she kept shoved under a desk in the corner. As she slowly obeyed, he went to retrieve Bert from her desk and dropped it down beside her and looked at Tony, "you too."

Tony looked aghast, "why does _she_ automatically get the bed?"

Gibbs pursed his lips and smacked the junior agent again, though in a rare act of mercy, his hand hardly connected with his head. Even so, the message got across and Tony quietly dropped to the floor. But before he could lay back on his farting pillow, Abby's arm darted out and snatched the stuffed animal and crushed it to her chest.

"Bo-oss," Tony exclaimed petulantly.

"Abbs," Gibbs reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. Abby ignored him and curled further around the animal, clearly not intending to let it go and it farted in response to her affections.

Tony raised his eyebrows at Gibbs as if to say 'Aren't you going to do anything?'

Gibbs clenched his jaw and did an about face, marched back over to the desk, retrieved a different stuffed animal, marched back and thrust it out at Tony.

"Um, Thanks Gibbs," Tony said quietly and reached out to carefully take the black bear, sensing he and Abby had just about pushed their reluctant caretaker to the limit.

Gibbs waited impatiently as Tony moved from one side to the other and rearranged the bear under his head several times before deciding he was comfortable. He noticed Abby shivering, even with her black pants and long sweatshirt, and striped his jacket to drape it over her slight form and made a mental note to try and find them some blankets somewhere.

He was kneeling between the two, both on their sides facing one another with their eyes closed in an attempt to get some much needed sleep. On impulse, he reached out to smooth Abby's hair from her forehead and then, before he could stop himself and much to his own embarrassment, did the same to Tony.

Neither said anything, for which he was sure he'd be eternally grateful, but the action did seem to ease the lines of pain and tension on their faces.

"I'm going to have Palmer bring you guys something to drink and check on you in about an hour, ok?"

Tony grunted and Abby gave a slight nod. Gibbs stood and waited until their breathing evened out somewhat before turning to leave. As he knocked off the light and wondered how much of that medicine crap he still had at the house left over from last weekend, he smiled to himself.

He was kind of looking forward to the long weekend that lay ahead.

"You're snoring, Tony," Abby complained quietly.

"No I'm not," Tony responded, his voice laden with sleep.

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are-"

Gibbs rolled his eyes and left the lab.

A very long weekend indeed.

_END (for real this time)_


End file.
